The City Hospital

Hof has been medical and health center for a long time

When Hof’s new municipal hospital was inaugurated on 30th May 1931, it was one of Germany’s most modern clinics at the time. This was a climax in the development of nursing care in Hof, which goes back as far as the 13th century. At that time the “Hospital” was opened, a building outside the town walls where the sick and poor were cared for. In 1308 a so-called “Siechhaus” (sick house) was erected alongside the Krebsbach stream and in the 16th century, due to the devastating results of the plague, “pestilence houses” had to be built, where patients could be kept in isolation.

With the danger of the plague conquered, no more is heard about care of the sick in Hof until 1804. Then, in 1834, an orphanage was rented and turned into a hospital. Thirty years later a new hospital was erected next to this building, which became a hospice for the incurably ill. This is the origin of the name “Inkurabel”, which is still used for the edifice.

With the rapid growth of Hof during the industrial age, the hospital was soon too small and so a site was chosen for a new hospital, outside the city on the road to the village of Eppenreuth, now Eppenreuther Straße. The foundation stone was finally laid in 1928 and the building inaugurated three years later. The whole concept and the facilities of the hospital gained widespread recognition in Germany.

Since then, regular extension and modernisation of the hospital have ensured that Hof’s “Klinikum” has kept pace with progress in medical technology and methods of treatment and so always been able to offer state-of-the-art medical care.